Unknown Territory
by AdventureAddict
Summary: The New Neighbors Revised When Al disappears, Ed decides to travel through time and space to try and save him. But amnesia wasn't part of the plan. Now all he wants is a normal life-when he's anything but ordinary. And then there's the girl next door...
1. Bottoms Up

Drunk Inigo Montoya: You told me to go back to the beginning, so here I am!

Ed: What the hell? Why is _he_ here?

AdventureAddict: Because Frodo refused to come back. Said he was tired of being insulted, or something like that.

Ed: What? And you actually let him out of it? -mutters- Why didn't _I_ think of that...?

Drunk Inigo Montoya: This is the beginning, and this is where I'll stay!

Ed: -glares- Oh, shut up! I miss the short guy! ...Why are we here again?

AdventureAddict: Because I'm rewriting New Neighbors! And because I kinda missed these Author's Notes!

Ed: Joy. I _didn't_ miss these notes.

AdventureAddict: But the story's better now! And it makes more sense! And, and-!

Ed: Joy.

AdventureAddict: You're no fun.

Drunk Inigo Montoya: My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father-!

Ed: -hits- SHUT UP!

Chapter One - Bottoms Up

"It's one of the most baffling cases we've had yet."

Ed sighed and examined his fingernails. Why was he there again? Oh, yeah, because he was using the military in order to have access to more resources so he could restore Al. And himself, of course. And using the military meant letting the military use you in return. Ed sighed and started picking at the dirt under his nails.

"The killer murders every subject in the exact same way—he always kills women, and they've always been stabbed through the chest and have had their hair dyed black and their eyes gouged out, and we assume he goes through at least one hour of torturing each victim, and—FULLMETAL, ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!"

"Yeah, yeah, of course," Ed sighed without even glancing up from his nails. "Crazy psycho murderer guy. If he provides such a clear pattern, why are you guys having trouble catching him?"

"Well, if you would let me continue-"

"You interrupted yourself, Colonel Idiot."

Roy closed his eyes and rubbed at his temples for a half a minute before he took a deep breath and started speaking again. "As I was saying, he's not hard to track, since he has such a simple pattern, but some of his murders have been reported to occur at the exact same time. In opposite sides of the town."

Ed barely batted an eye. "Accomplice."

"We thought so too. But we had two different men headed towards each reported area, and each man reported seeing the suspect, chased him for a few minutes, and then apparently, the man vanished in front of their very eyes. The same man on two different sides of town vanished at the exact same time."

At that, Ed finally sat up properly and frowned, deep in thought. "That's why you're bringing me in, huh?"

"He might be using a Philosopher's Stone to create temporary dolls or something," Roy said, swinging his chair so that he was staring out the window instead of at Ed. Ed nodded and placed his hands on his knees before standing up with a grunt.

"He's using something alright. It's worth a shot."

Roy spun his chair back around. "I thought you might agree."

Ed made a face at Roy and crossed his arms across his chest. "Just tell me where, bastard."

"Rubeccula."

Ed held a straight face for half a minute before he broke out in a smirk. "Sounds like a deadly disease. I'll tell Al. We'll be on the next train."

Roy smirked back at Ed and nodded. "Good." Ed nodded back and headed for the door. "Er, Fullmetal-" Roy called, and Ed sighed and turned back around, his hand still gripping the doorknob. Silence passed between the two for a minute.

"Don't go dying on me. The paperwork would be murder."

Ed paused and then smirked. "Aw, you make me tempted to die just to see the hassle kill you. Too bad I'm not going to let an old fart outlive me, even if only by a few days."

And with that, Ed opened the door and left the room. Roy leaned back in his chair and smirked.

T-H-I-S—I-S—A—D-I-V-I-D-I-N-G—L-I-N-E

Ed sighed and stretched out his arms behind his head as he walked down the street. Al glanced over at him and shook his head.

"You're not going to find the murderer just by walking around the town in circles," Al said with a sigh. Ed smirked and looked up at Al.

"Oh, yeah, you wanna bet?"

"Brother…" Al groaned and looked away from Ed. "Do you know something you aren't telling me?" Ed's smirk widened, and he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Just a hunch," he muttered.

The two walked for another minute in silence before they reached a corner. Al continued walking, but Ed stopped at the corner and looked up at the street signs. Al paused and looked back at him.

"Brother…?"

"This is the corner we're supposed to be at," Ed said simply. Al took a couple steps back towards Ed.

"You _do_ know something! And you haven't told me! What's going on?"

"Eh, it's ridiculous," Ed said with a shrug. "I don't even believe it, I'm just going along with it."

"You think that I wouldn't believe whatever you're hiding from me after all we've seen?" Al snorted and took another step towards Ed. "Coming from the mouth of my own brother, at that? I don't like you keeping secrets from me, Brother! If we can't trust one another, who _can_ we trust?"

Ed sighed and looked down at his feet.

"Brother, please!"

"Fine, fine," Ed said with a sigh. "Someone told me that the killer was going to show up at seven o'clock tonight at this intersection looking for you and me."

"That's it?" Al cocked his head to one side, and Ed looked up with a sheepish grin. "Well… Who told you?"

"Well… you see… that's kinda the funny bit…" Ed stammered as he started scratching the back of his head. "The person who told me was… uh… _me_."

Al paused. "Huh?"

"I… uh… a me from the future came and told me that he would be here at this corner at seven."

"Time travel?"

Ed made a face, looked down at the ground and scratched his head harder. "Yeah. Time travel. That's how this murderer guy is getting away with all these murders."

"And something's going to happen tonight that makes it so you can time travel too?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Ed said with a shrug. Both boys went silent for a minute before Al spoke up again.

"You can do that?"

Ed shrugged. "Either it's possible or it was Envy."

"Did your future self say anything that gave a hint either way?"

"He said my middle name right off the bat."

Al went silent for a minute considering what Ed had told him. "Only me and mom know that."

"And dad," Ed added with a nod. "Well, and me, of course. Winry doesn't even know."

"So… do you think it really was a future you?"

Ed shrugged. "I'm still not sure. I thought I'd do what he… I… said and see if it actually came true."

"And that means being at this corner at seven o'clock."

"Yep."

"Oh."

The two went silent for a minute before Al turned and hit Ed on the back of the head. "You still should have told me! You or your future self!"

"Ow! Come on, Al, if you think about it, I've told you now, so technically my future self _had_ told you! Ow! Al!"

"He told future Al, not _me_!"

"They're the same person! You're getting too confusing!"

"Edward Elric."

Ed and Al paused in their bickering to look and see who else had entered the conversation. On the opposite side of the street stood a man with short cropped hair, a mustache, and was wearing a white suit. Ed stared at the man for a minute before glancing upwards at the town clock, and then back down.

"Well, whadda ya know, it actually happened like he said," Ed said with a smirk toward the man. "Okay, bastard, what do you want with me?"

"You're close to Roy Mustang, right?" the man asked as he crossed the street to stand closer to Ed. Ed frowned and looked the man over.

"Well, I wouldn't say we're best buddies, but yeah, I know the guy."

"And he was the one who sent you on a mission to capture me, correct?"

"Wait, how do you—"

"So answer me this question, Edward Elric," the man continued, leaning forward and licking his lips. "If this mission is so important to Mr. Flame Alchemist, why did he send a child out instead of going out to catch the murderer himself?"

"I dunno, he's a busy guy," Ed said with a slight growl as his frown deepened while he stared at the man.

"I'll tell you why. I've already seen you in the future, Edward Elric. I have not seen Roy Mustang. The card of the future have already been played. No matter ow much I want Mustang, it's you I'll end up with."

Ed frowned and crossed his arms across his chest, looked up at Al for a second, and then looked back at the man.

"What's your game?" Ed growled.

"My _game_ is this," the man replied with a smirk as he pulled a small vial out of his pocket. "I've been following you, Edward Elric. And I collected a sample of your biological code. And this vial will make it so you'll be able to jump through time and space. Imagine if you could go back in time and change all the mistakes you've done."

Ed's breath paused for a slight second as he flicked his eyes up towards Al, and then he flicked his eyes back downward. He stared at the man in the white suit for a minute before he took the vial away from his outstretched hand. The man smirked.

"But what if I choose to believe in time being rigid so that if I were to go back in time, I wouldn't change anything?" Ed said as he stared at the vial of liquid. "Maybe I go back in time to change some horrible choice, and then find out that I was the driving force that made me choose the choice I did in the first place?"

The man in the white suit hesitated. Ed hid a smirk. He had thought that the man had been talking like that was the case, and then he had tried to sell Ed into time traveling with the idea that he could change the past? What a joke.

Ed hesitated. Sure, it seemed ridiculous, but if that was the way time really was, then sooner or later, he would end up drinking the liquid in the vial, either by force or choice. Because sooner or later, he ended up time traveling. So what would convince him to drink the vial?

"It won't only make you able to travel through time, it will make you able to travel through dimensions. Imagine if you could simply hop over to a world where Philosopher's Stones were abundant, grab one for yourself, and then hop back to your own world to fix your brother?"

Ed's fingers twitched on the vial. He wasn't sure how the man knew about Al, but he wasn't surprised either. The man was a time traveler himself, after all. Ed glanced up at Al, and then back down again.

And then he froze. Something had been wrong, very wrong. He looked back up again, and felt his breath hitch in his chest.

Al's eye sockets had stopped glowing. Ed placed a hand on Al, but as he did so, the suit of armor fell to the ground. Ed jumped back with a cry, and then turned and glared at the man.

"Don't worry, he's not gone forever," the man said with a smirk. "I knew this would work out in my favor, but I never had any idea just _how_ well it would work out!"

"What's going on?!" Ed snapped as he lunged for the man, the vial clenched tightly in his fist.

"Your brother's soul has been doubly tied. There's a suit of armor in another world with a blood seal that's calling to him. The two blood seals share some connection or something, I don't know, I don't study alchemy."

"Two worlds? Ed blinked, and then stared down at the vial in his hand.

Of course. Maybe the future really was already laid out. If anything would make him chug some chemical that could make him time travel and hop between dimensions, it would be the worry of Al not being safe.

"So this… potion thing… will make me able to go find him?" Ed said slowly and looked up at the man.

"Yes."

Ed stared at the vial for another minute before he sighed, closed his eyes, and shook his head.

"I'm insane," he muttered. He then looked up at the man and uncorked the vial. "Bottoms up."

And with that, he chugged the liquid in the vial.

Ed: -glances around- Hey, where's that other annoying girl, anyway?

AdventureAddict: Kairi? Well, we don't have a social studies period during which to torment you anymore, so I've got to fly solo now.

Ed: Really? YES! -dances-

-bolt of lightning strikes Ed-

Ed: -falls over-

AdventureAddict: Don't forget, I'm still the author.

Ed: -coughs- Says you! It's _my_ life!

AdventureAddict: Oh, that reminds me, I didn't do the disclaimer at the beginning.

Ed: She doesn't own me. Much. There.

-lightning strikes Ed again-

Ed: -coughs- The hell was that for?!

AdventureAddict: -grins- Because it's funny.

Ed: Where's that Inigo guy? Torture HIM!

AdventureAddict: You knocked him out.

Ed: ...Damn.


	2. Cute and Sexy

Ed: -drags Frodo back into Author's Note- No more trying to replace Frodo. I happen to LIKE having someone around who's shorter than me!

Frodo: -whimpers- I don't want to be here anymore. This is not a happy place...

AdventureAddict: Sheesh, Ed, you can't just run around treating characters like that. Bring him back to his own fandom.

Ed: -glares-

AdventureAddict: ...What?

Frodo: Um...

Ed: "You can't run around treating characters like that"? Like you're one to talk!

Frodo: Excuse me...

AdventureAddict: Hey, I'm the author! When you write your own stories, you can treat Frodo however you like!

Ed: Fine, maybe I will!

Frodo: Where is the bathroom in this place?

Ed: Go wet your pants, little man!

Frodo: ... -cries-

AdventureAddict: Ed, you're such a meanie.

**Disclaimer: No matter how much you fangirls out there are into the whole Ed-bound-in-chains fetish, he still isn't my slave. Therefore, I don't own him. And neither do you. And have a wonderful day in the Magic Kingdom. -winks-**

* * *

Chapter Two - Cute and Sexy

Ed groaned and pulled himself into a sitting position, completely unsure of where or even _when_ he was. He groaned and held a hand to his head, and then realized that he felt a lot… colder than was normal. He frowned and looked down at himself.

And then realized that he wasn't wearing _anything_. Ed let out a yelp and looked around for something to work with. He noticed a dumpster over to his side walked over to it.

"Good enough," he muttered, then clapped his hands together and pressed them against the dumpster. After a flash of blue, he reached down and grabbed a pile of folded clothes off the ground.

"You never mentioned that my clothes can't travel through other worlds with me," Ed muttered as he pulled on his red coat. He sighed and smoothed out the wrinkles, looked himself over, and then walked out of the alleyway to try and figure out where he was.

"All that trouble to try and make sure Al was okay, and I just ended up back in Central?" Ed said with a groan once he saw where he was. He glanced around twice, then sighed and started walking down the sidewalk.

Then he noticed two familiar faces farther down the sidewalk. Ed grinned. He couldn't think of a time he had been happier to see Mustang and Hawkeye. Maybe that potion hadn't worked at all. He hadn't traveled through worlds, and it didn't look as if he had traveled through time either. Maybe the potion had just been something to knock him out, and the man in the white suit had stolen everything Ed had and then dropped him off in Central.

Okay, so it didn't entirely make sense, Ed had to admit, but maybe there was something there that had a grain of truth to it. He sighed and started walking towards Mustang and Hawkeye. Hawkeye paused for a minute and looked behind her, making Mustang pause and glance over his shoulder as well.

"Libby, hurry up!" she called, and Ed watched as a small girl with black hair raced forward with a huge grin plastered on her face.

At first Ed tried to convince himself that Mustang had somehow gotten swindled into a babysitting job. But then he saw how the little girl grabbed each of the adults hands and smiled up at them, How Mustang and Hawkeye smiled back down at her… The black hair like Mustang, the round eye shape like Hawkeye…

Ed coughed and put a hand against the wall next to him for support. The girl was their daughter. Which meant that he really had time traveled. There was no way that Mustang and Hawkeye could have gotten married and given birth to an eight year old within a day. Unless he had been knocked out for more than a day, but Ed still didn't think that was long enough for them to get together and have a kid.

But it was still hard to imagine Mustang and Hawkeye having a daughter together, even if it was right in front of his eyes. Hell, just the way Mustang had smiled down at the girl had been hard to believe.

The girl let out a shriek, making Ed look up and snap out of his thoughts. "Uncle Edward! Uncle Edward!" Ed flinched. She already knew him? And she called him 'uncle'? Well, at least Ed knew he would live old enough to see Mustang get married and have a kid, but how was he going to explain to Mustang that he had suddenly gotten a lot younger? Especially when the girl was running towards him and Mustang was waving. Perfect.

The girl reached him and stood about a foot away, staring up at him. Ed grinned sheepishly and waved at her.

"You're in your old clothes," she stated simply. Ed glanced down at his outfit. So he eventually changed out of the black and red? Well, that was inevitable, really. It did look a little childish, though Ed hated to admit it.

"Do you remember me?" the girl asked, making Ed blink. He wasn't sure what to say to that.

"What?" Yeah, intelligent answer, good job. Ed mentally smacked himself.

"You said that someday there'd be a time where me and mommy and daddy saw you on the street, and you would be wearing your old clothes, and you wouldn't remember me because you're…" the girl paused and glanced around as if she was sharing a huge secret, then leaned in to Ed and whispered, "time traveling."

Ed nearly fell over, then mentally applauded his older self on the back. Telling her about all that was actually a smart move. An adult would never believe "rubbish" like time traveling, and therefore wouldn't remember it, but a kid would believe it easily and always be on the lookout for the day when the event happened that would prove it to be true.

"Yeah, that's exactly what happened," Ed whispered back, and the girl got a huge grin on her face just as Mustang and Hawkeye had caught up to them.

"Edward? What are you doing in that getup?"

Ed nearly fell over again. It was the same old tone he was used to, but without the 'Fullmetal' attached to it. Mustang had actually called him by his _name_. And his first name, at that! So they were actually on closer terms in the future? Ed shook his head. There was too much information hitting him at once.

"I'm… uh…"

"He's time traveling, daddy!" the girl shrieked, and Mustang looked down at her and then back up at Ed. "Just like me!"

Ed blinked and stared at the girl. _'Just like me'_? She time traveled? And probably naturally too, since Ed doubted that Mustang would let some psycho in a white suit feed his daughter some untested liquid in a vial. He looked up from the girl and found Mustang and Hawkeye staring at him, Hawkeye seeming curious, and Mustang seeming as if he were trying to make up his mind. After a minute, Mustang finally broke the silence and spoke.

"Pipsqueak?"

Ed snapped. He had barely been there for five minutes and already Mustang was back on the short jabs? "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A RUNT SO SMALL HE COULD RIDE AN APHID AS A HOURSE?!" Ed yelped and lunged for Mustang, but was stopped as Riza held up a gun and pointed it towards Ed's head. The little girl standing in front of him broke out into giggles, making Ed glance down at her for a moment before looking back at Mustang again. Ed twitched and stood still on the spot, clenching and unclenching his fists while gritting his teeth and glaring at Mustang.

Mustang and Hawkeye exchanged glances. There was a moment of silence before Mustang turned away from Hawkeye and looked back at Ed, then burst out laughing. Ed's glare deepened.

"He's time traveling, alright!" Mustang said through his laughter. "It's alright, I didn't mean that. I was just checking, sorry," he said, holding a hand out towards Ed. Ed frowned and stared at the hand as if it were contaminated. Mustang had gone and called him short and was then _apologizing_ afterwards? Something was way off there. That wasn't the way the routine worked. Mustang sighed and pulled his hand away when he saw Ed wasn't going to shake it.

"Fine, have it your way," Mustang said with a roll of his eyes. "Come on, let's go talk." Mustang grabbed his daughter's hand and started walking again, leaving Ed behind to blink and try to figure out what to do. He turned to Hawkeye.

She smiled at him and put her gun away again, and Ed relaxed a bit. If Hawkeye was smiling and didn't have a gun out, then things had to be okay.

"The date is September 17, 1928," she said simply. Ed blinked. "Come on, I'm sure you're hungry. Libby always is whenever she comes back." Ed nodded mutely and followed her, not bothering to point out to her that he was always hungry, so he hadn't even noticed if time traveling made a person hungry.

He could only keep trying to wrap his head around what she had told him. _1928_? That seemed like so far away compared to the dates he was used to. 1928 meant that if he really was alive like Mustang had said, then out there, somewhere, he was 29 years old. He was as old as he was used to _Mustang_ being! He was _old!_

As Ed followed Hawkeye, he wondered how it was even possible for Mustang to confuse a fifteen year old with a twenty-nine year old one. Ed seriously hoped that he wasn't still that short at twenty-nine.

T-H-I-S--I-S--A--D-I-V-I-D-I-N-G--L-I-N-E

After a little bit, Ed saw what he assumed was Mustang's house in the distance. The little girl at his side let out a squeal and went running towards the house, her arms outstretched like an airplane. Mustang chuckled and kept walking after her.

And then Ed noticed that there were two people already standing on the front porch. And one of them seemed awfully familiar. But… no, that would just be weird. He had already talked to his future self once, and he didn't want to do it again.

"Edward!" Mustang called out, and Ed turned to look at him, and realized that Mustang was addressing the blond guy standing on the porch, who was looking back at Mustang with a grin. Ed groaned and slapped a hand to his forehead. He didn't want to deal with another him from the future. Especially a him that was on friendly terms with _Mustang._

"Hey, jerk, you could have told us you would be out today!" his future self called out with a laugh, and Ed winced. It was just too _weird_.

"Did you have a nice time out today, General?" another voice called out, and Ed stiffened. That was a very, very familiar voice. Even more familiar than his own voice, which sounded much different when it wasn't coming directly from him.

And then he realized who the other person standing on the porch _had_ to be. Even if it wasn't a bulky shape of a person that was almost as big as Armstrong. No, the voice had actually come from a much smaller, much less spiky shape.

Ed felt his breath hitch, and then he was running forward. There was no way he'd be able to just walk calmly where Al was right there, in his _body_ again. Even if it wasn't the present Al he was living with, he was _there_, in the _flesh_.

He stopped in front of the two, ignoring his future self and staring at Al, who stared right back at him.

"Al," Ed croaked out, and he felt his voice crack on the word. A moment of silence passed among the group, until after a moment his future self started laughing.

"I remember this day!" the older Ed said, and Ed and Al both looked at him. Al blinked for a minute, glanced back at the younger Ed, then back to the older Ed.

"Oh… so this is you back when we were with Robyn?"

"Nah, this is right before," the older Ed said with a shake of his head. "This is actually the first time I ever jumped."

Ed blinked. '_Jumped'_? He had traveled through freaking _time_! How could his older self be talking about things so casually? He kept staring at Al, deciding to forget about his older self while also knowing that since his older self was… well, _himself_, he wouldn't stand for being ignored.

"Wait…" the older Ed muttered, and Al turned to look at him.

"What's wrong, Brother?"

"If this is that day, then that means that—"

"Hey, I got it!" a female voice cried from somewhere in the bushes, and Ed turned to look and see who had said it, while his older counterpart flinched. As Ed watched curiously, a woman crawled out of the bushes who looked like she was about the same age as the older Ed. She was small and looked like she was flexible.

She flicked some leaves out of her long black hair and then grinned and proudly presented a key to the older Ed.

"There, I did it, now give me my reward," she said with a smug grin. The older Ed smirked at her.

"Yeah, but one problem."

"What's that?"

"Roy's already home," the older Ed said with a snort, and then flicked the woman's forehead. She made a face at him and then turned around and grinned at Roy.

"Weeell, hiiii, Teacher," she said, walking the last few steps towards him and hiding the key behind her back. Ed blinked. Teacher? Roy had gone and even taken an apprentice? And a girl apprentice, at that?

Well, wait, no, a girl apprentice wasn't that surprising, considering Roy.

"We weren't really breaking into your house, you see," the girl continued with a smile. "We just wanted to get out of the cold, since it _is_ November…"

"Of course," Roy said with a smirk as he reached smoothly behind the woman's back and plucked the key from her fingers. She pouted and stuck out her tongue, then ran back to the older Ed and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Ed felt his brain explode as he watched the older version of himself grin at the woman and wrap an arm around her waist.

There he was, his future self, interlocked with some girl he didn't know, casually associating with Mustang, and Al had his body back. It was like everything had turned upside down.

"Who- Who is she?" Ed finally managed to choke out. The older Ed smirked and held the woman tighter, while the woman seemed to notice Ed for the first time.

"Aw, look, it's a mini Ed!" she said, turning to look at the older Ed with a grin. "Look how cute he is! I forgot how cute you used to be!"

"What, I'm not cute anymore?" the older Ed snapped back, though he was still grinning at her.

"Nope, not cute anymore," the woman said with a shake of her head. "Now you're sexy instead." Ed blinked. Were they even going to acknowledge that he had asked a question?

"Aw, I'm not sure whether to be flattered or hurt."

"What, you want to be cute _and_ sexy?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Well—"

"Who _is_ she?!" Ed snapped, starting to get a little freaked out at the banter that was going on between the two. He really didn't want to think that he was going to act like that when he was older. No, he must have landed in some parallel universe where Edward Elric was just plain… _weird_, and everyone thought he had time traveled when he was younger. That couldn't actually be him when he was older.

The older Ed and the black-haired woman turned to look at Ed, and the older Ed smirked.

"She's my—your—wife."

Ed stared at the woman with wide eyes, and she winked at him. _WIFE? _No way. He wasn't going to get married. That settled it, he was in some parallel universe for sure.

But then again… he glanced back at Al, who smiled and nodded. If Al had his body back, then maybe it was okay. He had only been avoiding girls so that he wouldn't get distracted from finding the Philosopher's Stone anyway. He frowned and turned back to the older Ed.

"Do I get my body back too?"

The older Ed grinned and pulled a glove off his right hand to reveal a flesh hand. Ed stared at it for a minute, unconsciously flexing his own right arm. After a minute, the older Ed put his hand back in the glove.

"Not the leg though," he said seriously, and Ed nodded. Still, one arm was better than nothing. He was prepared to not get anything of his own body back in order to ensure that Al got back to normal. He stared at his older self for a minute—a wife wrapped around him on one side and a flesh Al on the other—and he started thinking that maybe, even if he was on good terms with Mustang, the future didn't look so bad after all.

"So… how exactly did you manage to get Al back?" Ed asked, still staring at the group in front of him. The older Ed smirked and shook his head.

"No cheating, runt."

"Hey, that's calling yourself a runt!" Ed snapped at him, and the older Ed shrugged.

"Actually, it's calling myself as a kid a runt, which I was. Now, however, I'm tall and height doesn't matter."

Ed stared at his older self with wide eyes and a huge grin. Tall? The future looked _very_ bright indeed. The older Ed shook his head and pulled away from his wife.

"Hey, look, stop thinking about how tall you get to be someday and pay attention to me," the older Ed said, and Ed stared up at his older self and realized he was right about being tall, his older self was towering a full head over him. Ed grinned.

"Okay, this time traveling and dimension hopping stuff, it's been encoded into your DNA," the older Ed said quickly. Ed blinked and opened his mouth to ask what DNA was, but the older Ed cut him off. "It's enhanced when you're stressed. If you start getting stressed out, you're likely to end up someplace else butt naked, so do your best to stay calm. After this, you're going to show up in some place called America, got it?"

"America," Ed repeated with a frown. He had never heard of such a place.

"America is where Al is," the older Ed said firmly while he started digging through his pockets. He the pulled out a pen and pushed up Ed's sleeve on his left arm. On the bare skin of Ed's arm, he wrote one simple little sentence.

_Al is in the attic. _Ed stared at the sentence for a minute, blinked, and looked up at his older self.

"Anything else to tell me?"

"Yeah. Eat well, do your homework, and be nice to the girl next door." The black haired woman laughed at the words, and Ed frowned. Homework? Just what was going to happen next? He blinked and opened his mouth to ask another question, but his older self cut him off first.

"Oh, yeah, and don't be afraid to admit to something before it's too late, or you may never get to admit to it."

"What-?"

But as he started saying it, he felt a shock run through his body, and he plunged into darkness.

* * *

Ed: ...This story is even stranger than last time. Time travel... my brain hurts. It always does when there's time travel involved.

AdventureAddict: But hurting brains are fun! And besides, this time I've got characters down so much better, and the plot is more believable, and I've actually got a plan going in to this...

Ed: ... -sigh- Where'd Frodo go? I need to punch something.

AdventureAddict: Winry snuck in and helped him escape while you were busy trying to figure out time travel.

Ed: What the hell?! They've still got that weird secret relationship going?!

AdventureAddict: -shrugs- I dunno. Maybe she's just got a thing for small guys.

Ed: -anime fall-

AdventureAddict: How DO you fall like that, anyway?

Ed: Trip while standing in place.

AdventureAddict: Uh... Yeah, that makes total sense...

Ed: Doesn't it? -grins and thumbs up-


End file.
